Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to maintain animal welfare standards in the context of negotiations with the EU on a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement.

The EU has accepted there will need to be a number of areas where we need to retain our own rules. It is too soon to discuss the details of the SPS agreement, which is subject to negotiation. We have been clear with the EU about the importance of establishing arrangements which enable us to maintain high animal welfare standards.